But although that hardscrabble spirit still exists, the real hyper-competitive bouts are now happening at a totally different level.ДЄs Creative Artists AgencyвЂ™s planned purchase of ICM Partners shows, the business is no longer about brash upstarts sneaking off with boxes of paper itвЂ™s about a corporation swallowing up the No. HereвЂ™s the critical contextД¬reative Artists Agency said Monday that it is acquiring ICM Partners, one of HollywoodвЂ™s largest talent agencies.ДЄnyway, that quartet of Young Turks would go on to form Endeavor Talent Agency, which would later merge with William Morris Agency, now part of the larger, publicly traded Endeavor Group Holdings.Д®ndeavorвЂ™s dramatic origin story is just one example of how cutthroat the business of agencies can be. It held 6.7 percent of the shares pre-IPO, making it the third largest shareholder at the time.ItвЂ™s a pivotal time for HollywoodвЂ™s top talent agencies. The stock closed at $15.61 on Thursday.Дeerfield also made a private investment in Orchard. Its American depositary shares went public in the fourth quarter, pricing at $14 each on October 31. The biotech company specializes in ex vivo gene therapies. The firmвЂ™s newest position in the fourth quarter was Britain's Orchard Therapeutics, which instantly became its second largest long position. Homology's stock closed at $22.36 at the end of last year. Homology, which is developing a gene-editing technology, went public in late March at $16 a share.Дeerfield had earlier invested in the company when it was private and was the third largest shareholder with a 14.7 stake when it filed to go public, according to a regulatory filing at the time. The company missed earnings estimates in the second quarter and faces generic competition for its EpiPen from Teva Pharmaceutical Industries. The stock plunged 35 percent last year, a big portion of that decline coming in the fourth quarter. Mylan is the generic drug giant, which Deerfield has owned since the first quarter of 2015, according to regulatory filings. Two other stocks that were among Deerfield largest holdings last year were Homology Medicines and Mylan. The stock has swelled about eight-fold since March 2013, including a surge of about 34 percent in 2018. Horizon PharmaВ specializes in treating rare and rheumatic conditions. The biopharmaceutical company is based in Ireland, a corporate tax haven, but produces virtually all of its sales in the U.S. Deerfield took its initial position in the company's stock in the first quarter of 2013. Horizon Pharma was its largest long at yearend and has been a top-four holding for more than two years, according to regulatory filings. Of the 88, 16 are new positions established in the fourth quarter. common stocks, according to its latest 13F filing. It also makes private investments in companies.ДЄt the end of last year, Deerfield held 88 U.S. The hedge fund firm is well diversified, holding equity or debt in more than 100 companies. According to the website, some of the fundsвЂ™ profits are donated to the Deerfield Foundation. Not all of it is believed to be invested in hedge funds. Deerfield is now led by James Flynn, who has been with the firm since 2000.Дeerfield says on its website that it manages more than $8 billion. Snider, who had previously worked for Julian Robertson Jr.вЂ™s Tiger Management, retired in 2005 and died in 2014. Tiger Cub Arnold Snider founded Deerfield in 1994 with $17 million in equity. However, the firm wiped out those losses in January after posting a 17.1 percent gain for the month, the best monthly performance in its 18-year history, according to HSBC. Larry RobbinsвЂ™ Glenview Capital Management, which has held a very large allocation to health-care stocks over recent years, lost more than 16 percent in 2018, with most of the losses coming in December, according to HSBC data. However, last year it suffered an 8.6 percent loss in its Perceptive Life Sciences Offshore Fund. Sure, Joseph EdelmanвЂ™s Perceptive Advisors has generated greater total returns over this period, posting annual gains of more than 40 percent in three of the five previous years, including 2017. Deerfield did not return a call seeking comment. The hedge fund firm has been profitable for at least the past five years, posting double-digit gains in four of them, including nearly 11 percent last year when broad equity indexes finished in the red, according to an investor in the fund. is proving to be one of the most consistent large hedge funds focused on health careВ in the past five years.

Management stephen robbins